A Jewish Music Blogger turned to a Sofer, I've set to myself a long term goal: writing my own Sefer Torah. In this Safrut blog you will find revealing articles about this ancient art and you will also keep track of my progress.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

My Progress #4: Megillat Shir Hashirim

I finally managed to finish my Megillat Shir Hashirim, which took some 4 months to write. I had a very tough time writing this one since the klaf was quite bad, specially in the very first column, and this dragged the process more since I couldn't write as fast as usual.

This highlights how important it is to look for top-quality klaf; if you can't get it, wait until you find a good one. I couldn't erase mistakes properly and I even did the capital sin of a Sofer - I made a small hole while trying to correct something. It doesn't matter so much since I managed to "place it" just in between two words - look in the last line of the forth column.

Additionally, I used a computerized Tikkun (from which I copy the Megilla layout) which was awful - I was forced to stretch and squash words in almost every line. Now I know: only buy copies of hand-written Tikkunim.

But Shir Hashirim is fun to write, since I can use it every week (there's a minhag of reciting it every Shabbat-eve) and it's shorter than Megillat Esther. Now my next project is to write a large Mezuza - stay tuned!

I write with a plastic kulmus, since I work and I need something easy to use and sharpening the kulmus took too much time. I do make changes in the plastic kulmus I buy, and the biggest advantage is that the ktav is always the same size.

Tks. My next post is actually about the importance of a nice ktav - I will post it soon. The tagim arrangement is not my idea - many sofrim do that when they come next to each other because this way they don't touch each other and of course, because it looks nice.

I'm not the fastest writer, and I'm a perfectionist by nature, so it takes me time to write. I would say 3 lines every 25 mins. But everyone has a comfort zone and it might take more or less time for you..

Avraham,I don't know much about that. Since it was one of my first works, I just bought the tikkun I found in a Stam shop. But I would be interested in knowing more, so if you get any references please pass on to me.

Oneday,I sharpen the plastic kulmus every 4 lines on average, and after sharpening it 3 times I dispose it.Plastic is not the best but it works well for me because it saves me time, and being that this is a hobby for me, my time is scarce. If you write professionally, I don't know if it's the best option but give it a try.